Bridgeforth completed the season sweep of the Cornersville Middle School Lady Bulldogs on Tuesday night, as CMS dropped a hard fought 29-24 decision to the undefeated Lady Bobcats at home.

The Lady Bulldogs (4-3) held the upper hand early on and led by as many as six points in the second quarter before taking a 14-13 advantage into the break.

Foul line advantage

Cornersville, however, was unable to hold off the Lady Bobcats in the second half, as Bridgeforth (4-0) outscored the Lady Bulldogs 16-10 over the final two quarters to pull out the five-point win.

Both teams finished with 11 field goals apiece, but the Lady Bobcats outscored CMS 7-2 at the foul line thanks to a 5-of-8 effort at the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.

Although the Lady Bulldogs committed four fewer turnovers (24-20) than Bridgeforth, the Lady Bobcats offset that by outrebounding CMS 22-18 overall.

Ball-handler wanted

"We still had too many turnovers. We've talked and talked about it and we're still trying to find someone that can handle the ball," said Cornersville coach Peyton Newton. "We played very hard on defense, but we had some mental lapses on our help side defense at some important moments that really hurt us."

Taylor Powers and Emma Mitchell both tallied seven points and four points to lead the Lady Bulldogs, while Sara Beth Prosser added four points. Morgan Terry, KiAnna Holder and Jordyn Hopkins chipped in two points apiece for CMS as well.

Jenson Harper paced Bridgeforth with six points, while Grace Gerlach added six points. Bethanie Duke, Tee Hollingsworth, and Bianca Malone also notched six points apiece for the Lady Bobcats.

Bridgeforth jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, but the Lady Bulldogs closed the first quarter with an 8-0 run on the strength of three points from Taylor, a Mitchell three-point play, and a jumper by Holder to pull ahead 8-4.

Lady Bulldogs lead

After Malone scored on a layup to cut the deficit to 8-6 early in the second period, Prosser and Mitchell both knocked down short jumpers to give the Lady Bulldogs a 12-6 advantage midway through the stanza.

The Lady Bobcats rattled off seven straight points to seize a 13-12 lead late in the second quarter before Mitchell hit a short bank shot to stake CMS to a 14-13 advantage at the break.

Bridgeforth tallied five of the first seven points in the third quarter to grab an 18-16 lead, but Hopkins buried a jumper in the waning moments of the stanza to tie the game at 18-18.

Effort falls short

The Lady Bobcats managed to create some separation in the fourth period by putting together a 7-2 spurt to open up a 25-20 lead midway through the stanza.

Cornersville sliced the deficit to 25-24 with :27 left thanks to a Terry jumper and a layup by Mitchell, but the Lady Bulldogs came up empty on their final two possessions while Gerlach sank four free throws to seal Bridgeforth's 29-24 victory.